Dawkins' GOD: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life

Alister E. McGrath is one of the world’s leading
theologians, with a doctorate in the sciences. Richard
Dawkins is one of the bestselling popular science writers, with
outspoken and controversial views on religion. This fascinating and
provoking work is the first book-length response to Dawkins’
ideas, and offers an ideal introduction to the topical issues of
science and religion.

Addresses fundamental questions about Dawkins’ approach
to science and religion: Is the gene actually selfish? Is the blind
watchmaker a suitable analogy? Are there other ways of looking at
things?

Tackles Dawkins’ hostile and controversial views on
religion, and examines the religious implications of his scientific
ideas, making for a fascinating and provoking debate

Written in a very engaging and accessible style, ideal to those
approaching scientific and religious issues for the first
time

Alister McGrath is uniquely qualified to write this book. He is
one of the world’s best known and most respected theologians,
with a strong research background in molecular biophysics

A superb book by one of the world’s leading theologians,
which will attract wide interest in the growing popular science
market, similar to Susan Blackmore’s The Meme Machine
(1999).

Alister McGrath is Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University. He is a world-renowned theologian, with a strong research background in molecular biophysics, making him uniquely qualified to write this book. He is acclaimed as a highly lucid writer, capable of explaining difficult ideas to lay audiences, and is the author of numerous titles available through Blackwell Publishing including Theology: The Basics, A Brief History of Heaven, Christian Theology: An Introduction 3rd edition, The Christian Theology Reader 2nd edition, and Science and Religion: An Introduction. He is also the author of In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible, and The Re-enchantment of Nature.

“In this book McGrath does a good job of condemning
aspects of Dawkins’ zealotry but in the process does much to
condemn his own arguments as well.” (Journal of
Religious History, 20 January 2014)

"The book is important for a number of reasons ... Dawkins' God
ends with a valuable and more general chapter on science and
religion, emphasising the limitations of the human mind." (The
Journal of SJT, 2012)

"In Dawkins' God, McGrath has written a brilliant book,
and it is difficult to think that the exposition of Dawkins'
writings and their religious implications, will ever be better
stated, explored and criticised... at once dispassionate, robust
and readable." Richard Harries, Times Higher Education
Supplement

"Alister McGrath's book Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and
the Meaning of Life does a fair and sophisticated job of
summarising my position."Richard Dawkins, Times Higher
Education Supplement

"Dawkins is disposed of with panache, and with McGrath's ususal
clarity and conciseness." Theology

"Lucid and brief, without being perfunctory or dismissive, and
fulfils the role of guide to the educated layperson without
eliciting boredom from the academic familiar with the field ... The
end result of this effort by McGrath is that, once again, I would
have no hesitation in recommending the book as a basic text for
A-level or first-year undergraduate students looking for their
appetite to be whetted for a number of connected fields of
scholarship, or indeed for the 'educated layperson' seeking a grasp
of the issues without having to wade through hundreds of pages of
science and theology ... A very finely judged piece of writing."
Kaleidoscope

"With clear and incisive argumentation, McGrath takes Dawkins on
and exposes many of the weaknesses in his case for atheism."
Reformed Theological Journal

"Wielding evolutionary arguments and carefully chosen metaphors
like sharp swords, Richard Dawkins has emerged over three decades
as this generation's most aggressive promoter of atheism. In his
view, science, and science alone, provides the only rock worth
standing on. In this remarkable book, Alister McGrath challenges
Dawkins on the very ground he holds most sacred - rational argument
- and McGrath disarms the master. It becomes readily apparent that
Dawkins has aimed his attack at a naive version of faith that most
serious believers would not recognize. After reading this carefully
constructed and eloquently written book, Dawkins' choice of atheism
emerges as the most irrational of the available choices about God's
existence."Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project

“In this tour-de-force Alister McGrath approaches
the edifice of self-confident, breezy atheism so effectively
promoted by Richard Dawkins, and by deft dissection and argument
reveals the shallowness, special-pleading and inconsistencies of
his world-picture. Here is a book which helps to rejoin the
magnificence of science to the magnificence of God’s good
Creation.”Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology,
Cambridge University

“This is a wonderful book. One of the world’s
leading Christian contributors to the science/religion dialogue
takes on Richard Dawkins, Darwinism’s arch-atheist, and
wrestles him to the ground! This is scholarship as it should be
– informed, feisty, and terrific fun. I cannot wait to see
Dawkins’s review of Alister McGrath’s
critique.”Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy,
Florida State University

“A timely and accessible contribution to the debate
over Richard Dawkins’s cosmology which exposes philosophical
naivety, the abuse of metaphor, and sheer bluster, left, right and
centre. Here Alister McGrath announces what every Darwinian
Fundamentalist needs to hear: that science is and always has been a
cultural practice that is provisional, fallible, and socially
shaped – an enterprise to be cultivated and fostered, but
hardly worshipped or idolised. A devastating critique.”David N. Livingstone, Professor of Geography and Intellectual
History, Queen’s University, Belfast

“Alister McGrath critically examines the places where
Richard Dawkins’ well-established biological science changes
into the speculations which undergird Dawkins’ own
anti-religious faith. In his appreciative examination and ruthless
analysis of Dawkins writings and the polemics associated with them,
McGrath has done a marvellous apologetic job, as well as providing
a particular service for those daunted by scientific
authoritarianism. We are all in his debt for rigorously identifying
and exposing the weaknesses of some of the commonly used arguments
against the Christian faith.”R. J. Berry, formerly Professor of Genetics, University College,
London and President of the Linnean Society

“Alister McGrath subjects the atheistic world-view of
Richard Dawkins to critical analysis and finds it severely lacking
in intellectual rigour. As a former atheist himself, and a
biochemist turned theologian and philosopher, the author is well
placed to appreciate Dawkins’ well-deserved reputation as a
populariser of evolutionary theory, but equally well qualified to
assess his stratagem of using a biological theory for ideological
purposes. This book is essential reading for those interested in
the traffic of ideas between science, philosophy and
religion.”Dr Denis Alexander, Chairman, Molecular Immunology Programme,
The Babraham Institute and Fellow of St. Edmund’s College,
Cambridge

Please click on the link to visit the Wiley website for Alister E. McGrath, Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education at King?s College London, UK, and head of its Centre for Theology, Religion, and Culture. This innovative website brings together information about McGrath?s numerous Wiley books, including textbooks and scholarly research.

You will also find links to our companion websites for key textbooks, such as Christian History, and a host of additional resources such as podcasts, images, and videos, all designed to enhance your experience of using his books ? whether you are a student or a teacher.

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